San Jose native who went from shelter to Super Bowl returns

When San Jose native James Jones scored his first NFL contract, he gave money to his wife, Tamika, for the big spending spree he had been dreaming about: a shopping cart full of name-brand food.

For Jones — who went from living in homeless shelters as a child to winning the Super Bowl in February — a normal life, including a kitchen filled with normal food, was more important than diamond jewelry or a sports car.

“He lets you know, he thinks (growing up in homeless shelters) is something that had to happen to him,” Tamika Jones, 27, said Wednesday during a visit to one of those shelters, the San Jose Family Shelter on Las Plumas Avenue. “It’s the thing that made him the man he is today.”

Jones caught 50 passes and scored five touchdowns as a key cog in the lethal passing attack that helped the Green Bay Packers win it all this year, after going down as one of the top receivers in San Jose State history. Now 27, he returned with his family to the shelter to show the 35 families there that going from homeless to star athlete isn’t impossible.

He should know. He stayed there and at another shelter from age 5 until he moved in with his grandmother at the start of high school. Determined to “be like Joe Montana,” he started playing football as a 4-year-old and eventually won an athletic scholarship to San Jose State.

“Now, he’s more like Jerry Rice,” said his stepfather, Levon Jones.

In an age where athletes, and often wide receivers, are sometimes perceived as flashy and arrogant, Jones served drumsticks and spaghetti to families, posed for pictures and even tossed the football around with the kids.
He walked into the old room he lived in for three months during the mid-’90s, with three bed bunks crammed into a small space, and gazed around with a look of amazement. He went outside the room, where he played basketball growing up, and immediately picked up a ball and started shooting, surprised that the hoop now had a net.

Later, during an interview, he talked about how his upbringing has been a constant source of motivation.

“When we won the Super Bowl, it’s kind of like, you completed your journey,” James Jones said. “I cried as soon as the confetti came down, because of the journey I went through. I’ll never forget where I came from.”

James, his mother, Janet, his sister and stepfather stayed at the shelter before finding an apartment. Now the families in the shelter are going through the same process: They get 90 days of support there, including professional help on budgeting and finding a job. At the end, about three-quarters of them find permanent housing, where they get a helping hand for nine more months, said Patricia Crowder, executive director of Family Supportive Housing, which runs the shelter on donations and government subsidies, mostly from the city.

Thomas Hirshon and his fiance, Emily Hughes, are set to leave the shelter with their two young children later this week for their own apartment.

As tough as it has been, seeing Jones go from rags to riches gave them a mental boost Wednesday.

“He came from a rough childhood and broke through that barrier, and that’s inspiring,” Hughes said. “It gives us hope.”

But it was not easy. In addition to cramped quarters, having to walk everywhere and struggling for food, Jones remembers the little things, like having no television or going into the bathroom as a young boy and seeing grown men.

“That’s a little scary,” he said.

He said the key through it all was his mother, who worked several jobs to help her family.

His wife says kids in the shelters they visit always ask them why the NFL player does not resent his parents for his upbringing. But Jones said it was the opposite — his mom kept him on the right track.

“I never wanted to call my mother from jail or a troubled situation,” he said.

Janet Jones isn’t concerned about her son’s head getting too big for its shoulders.

“Seeing what it is to be at the bottom, and then make it to the top,” she said, “he appreciates it so much more.”

The appreciation isn’t just about winning titles. It’s also about those Fruity Pebbles he loves, and now he can afford to buy whatever cereal he wants.